dj bean

Finally, the home team won

So much has been made of big starts for in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals series between the Bruins and Canadiens. In Games 1, 2 and 4, the Habs came out strong, with the Bruins not matching the early effort and falling behind. In Game 3, it was the Bruins who stepped it up while the Canadiens weren't up to speed.

On Saturday, the series got its first look at what its like when both teams came out visibly determined and flying. The result? For starters, there wasn’t a goal within the first 10 minutes for the first time. It also took about half an hour’s worth of overtime to settle it.

“To be honest with you, I think both teams really played well tonight,” Claude Julien said after the B’s 2-1 win over the Habs. “You’re sitting there, honestly, watching a 1-1 hockey game and after the first overtime, starting the second one and you say, ‘It’s going to be a tough loss for whatever team loses, because both teams played well.’”

It was a tough-luck loss for the Habs, who dropped their second game in OT in three nights. For the Bruins, it was a case of bucking a surprising trend that had taken over the series. Finally, the home team won.

After the Habs came into Boston and took Games 1 and 2, only to see the Bruins win Games 3 and 4 at the Bell Centre, it seemed with each passing day that the series could ultimately come down to whichever team could win at home. Given that four of the seven games were scheduled to be played at TD Garden, the B’s would have to win one on their own ice if they wanted to advance to the second round for the third time in as many years.

“We never really looked that far ahead,” Brad Marchand, who scored the B’s lone regulation goal, said. “We just try and take it one game at a time, but it kind of looks like it was getting that way. Playing at home is always a big advantage in playoffs. You got your crowd and last change. So you want to use that to your advantage but sometimes it doesn’t work out for the best.”

While regulation had its heroes for both teams (Michael Ryder and Patrice Bergeron among them for the Bruins given their substitute goaltending in blocking shots), Tim Thomas and Nathan Horton provided the overtime heroics. Thomas made far and away the save of the year on a 2-on-1, sliding across to rob Brian after the Habs’ captain took a pass from Travis Moen. Thomas said afterwards that this series had taught him not to cheat over to Gionta’s side before Moen made the pass, so it took some acrobatics to be able to account for both possibilities. Luckily for him (and Boston’s collective heart rate) after making the save, the game would not go on much longer.

For a crowd that was hoping to be send home happy for the first time since the playoffs started, it seemed only fitting that it took Horton scoring the biggest goal of his life to break the deadlock. The winger’s smile hasn’t gone away since coming to Boston, and it undoubtedly spread throughout the Garden Saturday night.

“It’s awesome,” Horton said of the playoff atmosphere. “It’s a great experience and you don’t know until you’re truly there, until you feel it, how exciting it is to be a hockey player. It’s pretty special. It’s a lot more fun when you’re winning, obviously, and you’re feeling good. But we need to keep this going and keep having fun out there. I’m excited to play. I’m excited, and our team is too.

Now, the Bruins have their first lead of the series, and it couldn’t come at a better time. The B’s have come roaring back from a 2-0 deficit with three straight wins and can close the series out Tuesday at the Bell Centre, a building that haunted them in the regular season (0-2-1) but one in which they’ve had success so far in the playoffs. Now, the pressure is on the Canadiens to win at home.

“We’ve been through a lot the last few years and this was something different,” Milan Lucic said. “Obviously this year, [it was] going down the first two games at home and having to go to a building where we haven’t won all year and try to even up the series. I think our focus after those first two games wasn’t on the big picture -- it was on the first two games. After we were down, the focus was just on, ‘Okay, forget about what’s going to happen. Let’s just worry about what we need to do next and what we’re going to do that next shift and that’s what is getting us in a bit of a groove here.’”

Now they’re in a groove, and the Habs are suddenly in a hole. In all reality, either team could have won Game 5. The effort was finally there on both sides, and both goaltenders answered the call. Now the Habs must answer the call at the Bell Centre if they want to see the Garden (or any ice) again this season.

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